Christmas Gifts on a FIRE Budget

Mastering Christmas Madness

Christmas is edging near. As the Holiday shopping pressure increases and the Christmas shopping list never seems to end, we ask ourselves, “Do I need to get Little Timmy another gift?” There is a fun little Christmas time jingle circulating in the FIRE forums when it comes to buying loved ones gifts for those that don’t embrace materialism with both arms. The premise is that you limit the first world urge to out gift the Johnson’s and buy your loved ones one thing from each category.

Gift Guidance

• Something they want
• Something they need
• Something to wear
• Something to read
  
  
  

This is a great guiding saying to reduce the focus on materialism and still be in the spirit of giving. I really like this guideline, but I think there is something it is lacking. Let’s see if we can improve on that great jingle.

A Memorable Experience

When I think back to my own childhood, winter wonderland memories flood to mind. Growing up in the snowy north country, I think of the local pond hockey games that the neighborhood boys and I would rally together for. I think of the way time seemed to slow down as my aunt taught me the multiplication table while ice fishing in her icehouse.

I remember trying to walk out to the ice house, but the wind was so strong, and bare ice so slick that I would slide backward one step for every one I took forward. My mom had to hold her hand behind my back, so we could make any noticeable forward progress at all. I remember the ominous sound of the ice creaking all around, the pop and twang sounds that the six-foot-thick ice beneath my feet made as it expanded and heaved against itself. At Christmas time I remember learning to make hot cocoa slowly on the glowing red stove.

In fact, when I think back to the memories of my Christmas-time childhood none of my memories are centered around the amount or cost of Christmas gifts. Thinking about it I can’t even remember the majority of gifts I did get. This reality forms my opinion that the joy of the holidays is not in getting the most braggadocious black Friday deal, or even the about the gifts at all.

Memorable Gifts Without Emptying the Wallet

I submit that the best gifts we can give our children are simply attention and experiences. Taking the time to play a board game or teaching them how to identify animal tracks on a hike or perhaps just sitting beside them listening to the silly things their classmates said that day as you hold their hand and watch the ridiculous ADD cartoons that capture their attention. These are the memories that I believe they will remember after I leave this world. Think for a minute about the cost of those memories. The credit card commercials of former years come to mind. Experiences are priceless, but gifts and holiday travel come at a price. What if we shifted from materialistic gifts to experiences?

To the previously mentioned list of gifts, I propose adding an experience. Perhaps it is a romantic weekend retreat to a scudded mountain cabin with a hot tub with your loved one. Perhaps it is a waterpark hotel retreat with the kids and family. perhaps it is gifting your parents with a romantic weekend retreat. Perhaps add a “red X” day on the calendar every month, where you have an electronics-free adventure outdoors with your family. Whatever your idea, make it a memory rather than a position or toy and I promise you it will live on long past the holiday season in the minds of your loved ones. Long after the toy is outgrown, and the object of joy is discarded the memories will live on. So, to this list, I add making a memorable experience.

• Something they want
• Something they need
• Something to wear
• Something to read
• An experience to remember
  
  

Material Things Are Weighty

A few months ago I had the problem of getting my young daughter to clean her room, sound familiar? She would agonize and complain and through a fit over how hopeless it was to even think about cleaning it. To her, the task was so daunting that she felt it was hopeless to even start.

I was hoping she would be able to do this on her own so I could be productive on a home improvement project. I sat there listening to the drama-fest of excuses and the unachievable, unreasonable hope of ever having a clean room. While she went on, in the theater of my mind, I was contemplating her lucrative daytime soap opera career ahead. I let her go on for a few minutes, so she felt she had made her bleeding heart known before I responded. By then I decided to stow my hope of a home improvement project and helped her clean her room. I wanted to see what it was that made her so hopeless about cleaning this room, so I decided to help.

A half-hour later I was starting to understand her pain. She had so much stuff there was no good tidy place for it all. We ended up having to stack piles of toys, playsets, and stuffed animals up against the walls because we ran out of storage places to put everything. My daughter and I found several unopened birthday and Christmas gifts under other layers of stuff like the strata of soils that accumulate around the earth. When you dig down far enough in the substrate you find little historical treasures of previous gift artifacts. It dawned on me that we needed a better method to this madness. I quickly formulated a few operating guidelines.

The Laws of Organization

1. Everything should have its own unique put away location.
2. That location should be adequately sized to store all of what belongs there.
3. Things of a kind or class should be stored together.

That helped a lot, but the problem remained. She simply had more gifts, toys and stuff than could manageably fit in her room. The root issue was not that my daughter hated cleaning but that the take was overwhelming due to having more stuff that storage room to stash it away.

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

One day when she was out. I went through everything in her room. I separated her stuff into two equal piles. 1) stuff that I see her play with, wear and use. 2) Stuff that she never or almost never uses or has not opened.

I filled 7 garbage bags up with stuff of this latter category! In case she really missed something, I stowed those bags up in the attic. I didn’t want to just throw out or donate her stuff if it was something she actually treasured. Later when she got home she was so happy that I cleaned her room. She didn’t even notice that half her stuff was gone. She just thought I kicked it up or perhaps put it in the closet.

Months later she only ever asked for one of the missing things that she had not seen. I happily when up to the attic looked through the bags and pulled out that item. It is a couple of months later now and no further requests for missing beloved toys. I am happy to report I am ready to donate the bags removed from her room. It is much easier to get her to clean her room and I am contemplating another reduction in accumulation by taking out another half of her stuff.

Is Christmas a Financial Strain?

It is funny when I tell people that Christmas comes every year, no one is surprised. I can even tell them with incredible accuracy exactly when it will arrive each year, and still no one is surprised. Yet, in my greater circle of friends some people act surprised about the financial impact of the season even if it not all that different than last season’s expenses. So why the shock and awe? It is simple but not easy. They were not prepared for the expense. Do your future self a favor and make this the last year Christmas is a financial strain for you.

Set Yourself Up for the Win

Grab a folder and label is “Christmas Expenses”. Now stuff every single gift receipt and travel expense receipt in it. Include any hotel, plane tickets, rental and gallon of gas. After Christmas when you are sitting in front of the fire slowly sipping a glass of eggnog. Pull out the folder and laptop and log all the expenses in a spreadsheet. Label the tab [current year]. Now you can quickly calculate a total of the year expenses.

Next, set a new year’s resolution to make a monthly or per paycheck contribution to a labeled separate account, sub-account or envelope for next year’s Christmas fund. The reality is that you will spend that money whether you were prepared for it or not. So quite racking up the holiday credit card debt and save the surprised face 😲 for opening those ugly sweater Christmas gifts from crazy uncle Eddi. Now sit back and enjoy the rest of that eggnog and crackling fire.

“A failure to plan is a plan to fail.”

Actionable Takeaways:

1. Keep material gifts simple and focused. Give a memory of a lifetime.
2. Declutter your room and see if you really miss the clutter.
3. Start a Christmas folder and fund.
   
   

Keep the FIRE burning my friends.